In Nineties and early 2000s New York, Sean “Diddy” Combs was the particular person to be seen with.
Now on trial in Manhattan, his hair gray, his beard grown, it is laborious to think about that he was “the Pied Piper… of the most elite level of partying of that time” – however that is how Amy DuBois Barnett describes him.
She was the primary Black-American girl to run a significant mainstream journal within the US, and based mostly in Manhattan at a time when hip hop was at its zenith.
“Urban culture really ran the city,” she says. “That’s where so much of the money was… you had all the finance bros trying to get into Puffy (Combs) parties, all the fashion executives trying to get into Puffy parties.”
And whereas he was welcomed by the best echelons of the humanities and leisure world, she says: “He was never known for being a calm kind of individual.”
Combs was “very dismissive” along with her, and he or she admits: “Puff never particularly liked me that much.”
However DuBois Barnett would usually get invited to his events as a result of she was capable of function his up-and-coming artists in her magazines.
From editor-in-chief of Ebony journal, she’d go on to turn into the editor-in-chief of Honey and Teen Folks magazines, after which deputy editor of Harper’s Bazaar.
She says the person she met at these events “lacked warmth” and appeared “complicated”.
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Amy DuBois Barnett
“When he walked in the room, all of the energy changed. Puffy had his trusted individuals around him… immediately the area around him would become kind of crowded with everybody vying for his attention,” she says.
“I think that was also partially why he didn’t particularly like me because I wasn’t really vying for his attention.
“He actually reserved that spotlight for the folks that he was both drawn to… or the folks that he thought had been necessary sufficient to his enterprise success.”
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Amy DuBois Barnett (proper) with writer Desiree Rogers at an occasion for Ebony journal
She says it was widespread information that he wasn’t somebody to cross because of “rumours… of what he could do”.
“There were a lot of people within journalism, within media, within other industries that were afraid of his influence and also afraid of his temper,” she provides.
“When things at parties would not go his way or somebody didn’t bring him something quickly enough, or… the conversation wasn’t going his way… he would just kind of snap and he was just not afraid to yell at whoever was there.
“There was not lots of boundaries in his communication, let’s simply put it that approach.”
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Combs on the purple carpet on the peak of his success
However she says it was a time when an amazing quantity of misogyny was working all through music, issues that in as we speak’s tradition would definitely give pause for thought.
“So many things happened to me, everything from getting groped at parties to getting locked in a limousine with music executives and having him refuse to let me out until I did whatever he thought I was going to do, which I didn’t.”
She insists: “We didn’t have the vocabulary to understand the degree to which it was problematic… it was a thread that ran throughout the culture.”
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Getting off a non-public jet throughout his heyday
Star-studded events had been the last word invite
On the time, a ticket to considered one of Combs’s star-studded “white parties” was the last word invite.
She admits: “It was like nothing you’ve ever seen before… the dress code was very strict.
“No beige, no ecru, completely white, you’d actually be turned away in case your outfit was unsuitable. Puffy didn’t type of tolerate individuals in his events that did not look ‘grown and attractive’ because it had been.”
She says people would mingle by the poolside listening to the best DJs in the world, while topless models posed dressed as mermaids and waiters handed out weed brownies from silver platters.
“It was each boldface identify you can probably think about, simply this attractive crowd.”
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At an occasion with mannequin Naomi Campbell
Behind the glamour, prosecutors now allege there was a person able to sexual abuse and violence, and a critical abuse of energy. Legal costs which he is already pleaded not responsible to and strenuously denies.
With out query, Combs had the golden contact. Increasing his music profession into enterprise enterprises that in 2022 reportedly took his web value to round £1bn. For many years his success story was celebrated.
“I think that in the black community, there is a feeling that if a black man is successful you don’t want to bring him down because there are not that many… these are cultural forces that are rooted in the systemic racism that’s present in the United States… but I think that these were part of what potentially protected Puffy against people speaking out.”
Couple turned ‘remoted and really sad’
Whereas Combs had amassed a small fortune over the course of twenty years which she encountered him, the previous journal editor says his behaviour had markedly modified from the primary celebration she went to, to her final.
“The last was a post-Grammys party, in 2017 or 2018, and just the vibe was very different. He was really kind of isolated in a corner with Cassie, you know, looking very unhappy.”
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Diddy and Cassie collectively on the purple carpet
For round 10 years, Combs had a relationship with the singer Cassie Ventura which resulted in 2018.
As soon as over she filed a lawsuit that each events ultimately settled alleging she was trafficked, raped, drugged and crushed by the rapper on many events – which he denied. Final week she made related claims in courtroom.
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A courtroom sketch of Cassie giving proof in opposition to Combs in courtroom this week. Pic: Reuters
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A courtroom sketch of Combs listening to proof from his former accomplice Cassie. Pic: Reuters
“Cassie looked very glassy-eyed and there was a sadness about her energy. Whatever was happening between the two of them, I mean, it didn’t feel positive,” says DuBois Barnett.
“They were sort of holed up in the corner for almost the entire night… it did feel very different from the kind of jubilant of energy that he projected in his earlier incarnations.”
For Combs, his freedom will depend on how these subsequent few weeks go. His representatives declare he’s the sufferer of “a reckless media circus”, saying he categorically denies he sexually abused anybody and desires to show his innocence.
Particularly, they are saying, he appears to be like ahead to establishing the “truth… based on evidence, not speculation”.
